State Street Global Advisors appoints Dr. Xinting Jia in new ESG role – Asset Servicing Times

State Street Global Advisors appoints Dr. Xinting Jia in new ESG role

State Street Global Advisors, an asset management business, hires Dr. Xinting Jia as ESG investment strategist for Asia Pacific.

In the newly created role, Jia will report globally to Karen Wong, global head of ESG and sustainable investing, and regionally to Michele Barlow, head of strategy and research for Asia Pacific.

Based in Melbourne, Jia will work closely with clients in Asia Pacific to support the firm’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment strategies, and develop solutions to address ESG and performance goals.

Jia joins State Street from CareSuper, an industry superannuation fund in Australia, where she was an ESG specialist, leading the firm’s ESG policy formation, implementation and stewardship.

Prior to this, she was head of Asia for responsible investment at Mercer Investments where she aided Asian institutional investors to integrate ESG factors into their investment processes.

Commenting on the appointment, Wong says: “ESG investing represents over a third of the world’s professionally managed assets. We are excited to create this role as ESG is now truly mainstream in Asia Pacific.

“Xinting has extensive experience in sustainable investing in Asia Pacific. As institutional investors in the region advance along their ESG journey, the need to find the right ESG investment solutions is an urgent one. Xinting will work with them to understand the relationship between ESG integration and performance, the possibility of integrating stewardship activities to maximise outcomes, implementation methods to benchmarks and address the ESG data challenge.”